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Strauss-Kahn Denies Guilt

Hotel workers jeered Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he left court in lower Manhattan on Monday.
Reuters

By

Michael Rothfeld

June 7, 2011

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid, and his lawyers demanded to see evidence in the case. The maid's attorneys, meanwhile, pledged to fight what they said was a smear campaign against her.

Former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was in state supreme court this morning to answer charges he attacked a hotel maid last month, Michael Rothfeld reports. Photo: Getty Images.

The 62-year-old French politician, once seen as a likely candidate for his country's presidency, was brought through the front door of a lower Manhattan courthouse past protesting hotel workers, some dressed in maid uniforms and chanting, "Shame on you!"

In a 13th floor courtroom packed with reporters, Mr. Strauss-Kahn walked in slowly for his arraignment, wearing a dark suit, blue dress shirt and dark-blue tie. He looked away as the charges were read out in a seven-count indictment related to the alleged May 14 sexual assault of the maid at the Sofitel hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Asked for his plea, he stood up and uttered a French-accented "not guilty."

Former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, arrive for a hearing at Manhattan State Supreme Court on Monday.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The court appearance by Mr. Strauss-Kahn, with this wife in the front row, was the first since he was released from jail and placed on house arrest more than two weeks ago. It began what is expected to be a series of moves and countermoves by the defense and prosecutors leading up to a possible trial.

Lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn, whose next court appearance was scheduled for July 18, filed a nine-page motion Monday demanding that prosecutors turn over all types of evidence. Mr. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have indicated they would argue the encounter was consensual.

"In our judgment, once the evidence is reviewed, it will be clear that there was no element of forcible compulsion in this case whatsoever," Strauss-Kahn defense attorney Benjamin Brafman said after the hearing, using a term in the sexual-offenses section of New York state's legal code for nonconsensual acts performed under physical force or threat. "Any suggestion to the contrary is simply not credible."

Kenneth Thompson, a lawyer for the maid, a 32-year-old single mother and an immigrant from Guinea, said after the hearing that the notion she consented was "a lie." He also criticized portrayals in the media of her as part of "some sinister plot to bring down Dominique-Strauss Kahn."

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"Despite the smear campaign that is being committed against her, she is standing up for her dignity as a woman," he said, adding that she would testify against Mr. Strauss-Kahn in a trial if necessary.

"The victim wants you to know that all of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's power, money and influence throughout the world will not keep the truth about what he did to her in that hotel room from coming out," Mr. Thompson said.

Prosecutors have said the maid emerged from the room after the alleged attack and promptly told other employees. They have said that made her story credible, as did physical evidence that corroborated her account.

On Monday, Mr. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers asked for information about potential witnesses, including any promises made to them by the prosecution. The request, they said, "includes information concerning any payment of monies to any prospective witness."

The defense inquired whether prosecutors planned to introduce evidence of "uncharged criminal conduct" against Mr. Strauss-Kahn. Prosecutors have said they were investigating past incidents involving him. Those relate to reports made by other women in the U.S., according to a person familiar with the matter.

Strauss-Kahn at his arraignment.
Associated Press

His lawyers also asked for reports relating to testing of blood, hair, fibers or other substances that might contain DNA, and any medical records relating to him or the maid. The lawyers requested any police reports, crime-scene photos or video, and property of Mr. Strauss-Kahn taken by authorities, including books, papers, blood samples and fingernail scrapings.

In a separate letter to prosecutors dated May 27 and attached to Monday's request, defense lawyers expressed concern that mobile phones seized from Mr. Strauss-Kahn contained information that may be legally sensitive. They asked prosecutors not to listen to messages left on the phones nor to read any emails after his arrest in accounts on an Apple computer and an iPad seized from him. They said the voice mails and emails might pertain to his defense.

Prosecutors said they were reviewing the defense's evidence requests and would respond.

Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who resigned his IMF post within days of his arrest, has been living in a two-story townhouse in the downtown Manhattan neighborhood of TriBeCa. A judge ordered him held under armed guard on bail of $1 million cash and $5 million bond. The security arrangement is estimated to cost Mr. Strauss-Kahn $200,000 a month, prosecutors have said.